Horse Sports

Thoroughbred racing was one of the first major sports in early America. Horse racing thrived because it was a high-status sport that attracted the interest of both old and new money. It grew because spectators enjoyed the pageantry, the exciting races, and, most of all, the gambling. In The Sport of Kings and the Kings of Crime, author Steven Riess fills a long-neglected gap in sports history, offering a richly detailed and fascinating chronicle of thoroughbred racing's heyday.

The dramatic true story of two brothers living parallel lives on either side of the US-Mexico border - and how their lives converged in a major criminal conspiracy.

The foundational work you do now is critical, and you’ll always have it to fall back on. Make sure your horse is never spooked in a dangerous moment again. From desensitizing and disengaging to backing up, these are fundamental training procedures you can’t afford to get wrong, and they’re not procedures you’ll only ever have to engage in once. You don’t need to spend years in equestrian school to learn these skills: You simply need access to all the essential knowledge distilled and explained in one clear resource, and that’s exactly what you’ll find in this guide.

In the horse riding world, your success is determined by how well you can control, understand, and harmonize with a 1,000+ pound animal that has superior strength, is faster, and has a better-developed nervous system than you. The way you overcome these strengths in a horse is to understand what the horse’s limitations are.

"Every horse story is a love story," writes Jane Smiley, who has loved horses for most of her life and owned and bred them for a good part of it. To love something is to observe it with more than usual attention, and that is precisely what Smiley does in this irresistibly smart, witty, and engaging chronicle of her obsession. In particular she follows a sexy filly named Waterwheel and a grey named Wowie (he "tells" a horse communicator that he wants it changed from Hornblower) as they begin careers at the racetrack.

After rescuing Magic Spirit, Tilly spends every moment she can with him at Silver Shoe Farm. While she's there, she's drawn to a Red Admiral, a young racehorse who has been injured. With her horse-whispering skills, it's not long before Tilly knows how to help him on the road to recovery.

Detective Samson O'Brien is ready to settle down to a nice cup of tea, but it's not long before he's called on for help with a new case. In order to execute a recent will, solicitor Matty Thistlethwaite requires a copy of a death certificate for a young woman who died when Samson was a child. It should be straightforward, but things in Bruncliffe rarely are. Particularly when Matty insists that Delilah Metcalfe, with her wealth of local knowledge, works alongside Samson on the sensitive investigation.

If Jules was sure about one thing, it was that she would never become a riding instructor. But suddenly she is the lead instructor at the Alachua Eventing Co-Op, and though Jules never thought she’d be so sentimental, she loves training up a new generation of riders. Her own riding has never been better, and Jules will be able to afford a promising new horse if she and Dynamo can win at the Central Park Horse Show in the fall.

Building a barrel horse and training program is essential to being competitive in the industry. You need to understand all aspects of this exciting sport to be able to train properly and set yourself up around each barrel. There are many components of riding a barrel horse, and in this series, we will be giving you all of the top tricks, tips, and training drills you need to become an expert barrel racer with time and practice to become a successful horseman or woman and execute your barrels.

He’s racing cross-country, looking for a safe place to land. She’s dreading a future that was never her choice. They both want the same thing: to leave the past behind.

Liv’s smart, shy, and a total control freak, but she’s ready to throw away a future in veterinary medicine to become a jockey. Nate’s good on a horse and good with people. Except Liv. He can’t quite crack Liv. Chique, though? He’s got that filly wrapped around his little finger.

Broken: Tales of a Titanium Cowgirl shares the journey of Michelle Scully’s calamitous riding accident and devastating injury. It also provides a panorama of her path of deep personal discovery as she unexpectedly finds herself in a joyful journey of recovery. Love of horses commingles with a personal quest to improve her horsemanship to spur on her healing.

In this abridgement of River-Horse, the pre-eminent chronicler of American back roads - who has given us the classics Blue Highways and Prairyerth - recounts his singular voyage through American waters from sea to sea. Along the route, he offers a lyrical and ceaselessly fascinating shipboard perspective on the country and its rivers, lakes, canals, and landscapes.

Own your first horse like an expert, regardless of your experience. Discover how to care for and nurture your horse, even if you’ve never set foot in a stable before. The journey from a complete novice to an accomplished rider is a meaningful and rewarding experience that simply can’t be rivaled. The love and affection between horse owners and their animals is astounding–it’s no joke when riders say their horse is their best friend.

When Lanfranco ‘Frankie’ Dettori arrived on British shores in 1985, aged just 14, he couldn’t speak a word of English. Having left school just a year earlier, he was eager to become a stable boy and apprentice jockey, following in the footsteps of his father. This was his first, but certainly not his last, leap of faith. Despite his slight size, Frankie’s impact upon the British racing scene was immediate and significant.

In an era of spectacular thoroughbreds, Spectacular Bid was perhaps the most exalted racehorse of them all. In 1979, he won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes—and transcended his sport on a run of 12 consecutive stakes victories—but his quest for the Triple Crown was lost with a third-place finish in the Belmont Stakes due to a series of bizarre events that have never been accurately reported. In The Fast Ride, Jack Gilden tells the story of what really happened that day the Bid lost the biggest race of his life.

In the late 1980s, a spectacular three-year-old female racehorse named Winning Colors was being groomed for success under her famous Hollywood trainer D. Wayne Lukas and the billionaire owner of the San Diego Chargers pro-football team Eugene Klein. Meanwhile, three fun-loving gamblers Miami Paul, Dino Mateo, and Big Bernie believed that Winning Colors could be the unlikely female winner of the 1988 Kentucky Derby.

With a show-jumping career spanning over 40 years, Nick Skelton is a legend in the equestrian world. No other rider has won so many major competitions on so many different horses, and he is as popular at Olympia and Hickstead as he is at Aachen, Geneva, Paris and Spruce Meadows. In 2000 Skelton was forced into retirement after he broke his neck. But following an amazing recovery, he came out of retirement in 2002. Now he tells the full story of his eventful life and matchless achievements.

Travel to Mongolia, Georgia, Poland, South Africa, and more as you embark on countless adventures in the saddle. In this audiobook, you will find what your truly made of as you tackle countless obstacles and overcome hardships while abroad on horseback. You’ll encounter wolves in the wilds of Georgia. You’ll discover the true kindness of people after facing an injury that will change the course of your life, forever.

Confessions of a Timid Rider is a memoir detailing one woman's insights into being an anxiety-ridden but passionate equestrian. After returning to riding as a mother, she is determined to follow her dreams despite the fear she is somehow lacking in talent or ability. An in-depth look into the heart and head of a returning adult equestrian and mother, this message is not limited only to those with horse experience.